Business Ethics Business Ethics Springfall Contact Information Professor Name Office Location Office Hours Email

Business Ethics

Spring/Fall 20XX

Contact Information:

Professor Name:

Office Location:

Office Hours:

Email:

Course Description and Learning Outcomes:

This course is designed to provide an examination of significant ethical issues and challenges in today’s

professional business arena, including the manager’s social and environmental responsibility to

stakeholders; ethical dilemmas and decision-making frameworks and approaches to personal,

organizational, and societal levels; and real-world application and analysis of issues.

Student Learning Outcomes:

2. Analyze the available literature on business ethics to broaden the understanding about ethical

challenges in various sectors of business

4. Apply critical thinking skills to evaluate ethical issues and conflicts in the corporate world and arrive at

measures to resolve them

6. Apply knowledge of ethical principles and dilemmas to the corporate world

7. Demonstrate effective oral and written communication to respond to ethical issues

Required Course Material:

REVEL: You are required to purchase the REVEL version Velasquez, Business Ethics: Concepts and

Cases, 8e for this course. I will assign reading, writing, and other homework activities in REVEL – they

are worth 35% of your grade.

Choose the option that works best for you:

Option #1: Purchase a REVEL access code from the campus bookstore.

Option #2: Online Instant Access: If you decide not to purchase REVEL from the bookstore, you can

purchase REVEL access online. You will see this as an option after clicking on the course invite link

listed below.

2

Follow these steps to get started or watch a short video

COURSE INVITE LINK: https://console.pearson.com/enrollment/XXXXXXXX

2. If you already have a Username and Password for another Pearson technology (i.e. MyMathLab), go

3. To access REVEL throughout the semester log onto http://console.pearson.com. Make sure to

bookmark this URL and NOT the course invite link. Remember to always use the same username and

password to logon.

Grading and Assessments:

25 percent Exam 1

25 percent Exam 2

25 percent Exam 3

5 percent Attendance

Exams: Exams are based on class lectures, discussions, and REVEL assignments. See class schedule

below for details on which chapters will be covered on each exam.

Attendance: Attendance is required. Your attendance score is calculated by the number of times you

Participation: Participation is required ‒ both in class as well as outside of class. Outside of class

students are expected to participate in weekly writing activities within REVEL. “Shared Writing”

2. Track your performance in REVEL throughout the semester.

3. Highlighting important sections in the chapter will allow you to easily refer to them later on in the

5. If you forget your login information, go to the Forgot Username or Password link to retrieve your

username or reset your password. Then, enter your email address and click continue. Check your

email account for an email with the subject, “Pearson Username/Password Request.” The

message will contain all of the usernames that are found for that email address. Choose one

account to use with REVEL.

Class Schedule:

REVEL reading and quizzes will be due before we cover the chapter in class. The following schedule is

tentative; please see your REVEL assignment calendar for all assignment due dates.

Week

Day

Date

Out-of-class Assignments (REVEL)

In-class Focus

1

Register for REVEL using the course

invite link listed at the top of this

syllabus.

Cover Syllabus

REVEL Registration

Before class, complete any REVEL

reading, quiz, or writing assignments

for Chapter 1:

Introduction: Introduction: Ethics and

Business

1.1: The Nature of Business Ethics

1.2: Moral Reasoning and Moral

Chapter 1: Ethics and Business

Decision Making

1.3: Ethical Issues in International

Business

• Journal: Ethical Relativism

1.4: Foundations of Moral Reasoning

1.5: Moral Responsibility and Blame

• Journal: Do Companies Bear

Direct Responsibility?

• Shared Writing: The Place of

Ethics and Moral Standards

• Shared Writing: Moral

Behavior and Moral

Development

Case Study 1.1: Slavery in the

Chocolate Industry

• Journal: What are Your

Views on the Nature of

Wrong?

Case Study 1.2: Aaron Beam and the

HealthSouth Fraud

• Journal: Evaluate Moral

Responsibility at HealthSouth

Summary: Ethics and Business

• Chapter Quiz

due date and time.

Before class, complete any REVEL

reading, quiz, or writing assignments

for Chapter 2:

Introduction: Ethical Principles in

Business

2.1: Approaches to Moral Decision

Making

2.2: Utilitarianism: Weighing Social

Costs and Benefits

• Journal: Analyze this

Argument

2.3: Rights and Duties

• Journal: What is an

Chapter 2: Ethical Principles in

Business

Uncoerced Decision?

2.4: Justice and Fairness

• Journal: Evaluate the

Behavior of the Oil

Companies

2.5: An Ethic of Care

2.6: Integrating Utility, Rights,

Justice, and Caring

2.7: An Alternative to Moral

Principles: Virtue Ethics

2.8: Unconscious and Conscious

Moral Decisions

• Shared Writing:

Utilitarianism and

Distributive Justice

• Shared Writing: Ethic of

Caring and Ethic of Virtue

Case Study 2.1: Traidos Bank and

About Traidos Bank and

Roche’s Drug Trials in China

Case Study 2.2: Testing Drugs in the

Developing World

Testing Drugs in the

Developing World

Summary: Ethical Principles in

Business

• Chapter Quiz

See REVEL assignment calendar for

3.2: Free Markets and Rights: John

Locke

• Journal: Numbers and People

3.3: Free Markets and Utility: Adam

Smith

3.4: Free Trade and Utility: David

Ricardo

3.5: Karl Marx and Justice: A Critique

of Free Markets and Free Trade

• Journal: Relevance of Marx

Today

3.6: The Mixed Economy, New

Forms of Property, and the End of

Marxism

• Journal: Musical Ethics

• Shared Writing:

Contemporary Application

• Shared Writing: Evaluate the

Case Study 3.1: The GM Bailout

• Journal: Think Critically

about The GM Bailout

Case Study 3.2: Accolade versus Sega

• Journal: Think Critically

about Accolade Versus Sega

International Trade

• Chapter Quiz

See REVEL assignment calendar for

specific assignment details, including

due date and time.

Before class, complete any REVEL

reading, quiz, or writing assignments

for Chapter 4:

Chapter 4: Ethics in the

Marketplace

a Perfectly Competitive

Market

4.3: Monopoly Competition

• Journal: Your Views on the

Drug Industry

4.4: Oligopolistic Competition

• Journal: Did DRAM Makers

Engage in Cartel-Like

Behavior?

4.5: Oligopolies and Public Policy

• Journal: Consider Market

Concentration

• Shared Writing: Public Policy

and Business Competition

• Shared Writing: Price-Fixing

in a Foreign Country

Case Study 4.1: Intel’s Rebates and

Other Ways It Helped Customers

• Journal: Market Perspective

on Intel

Midland and the Friendly Competitors

• Journal: Analyze ADM Price-

Summary: Ethics in the Marketplace

• Chapter Quiz

See REVEL assignment calendar for

specific assignment details, including

due date and time.

Before class, complete any REVEL

reading, quiz, or writing assignments

for Chapter 5:

Introduction: Ethics and the

Environment

5.1: The Dimensions of Pollution and

Resource Depletion

Chapter 5: Ethics and the

Environment

Industrialization—and

Pollution

5.3: Remedies as Duties of the Firm

5.4: The Ethics of Conserving

Resources

• Journal: Ethics of Dangerous

Exports

• Shared Writing: Ecological

Ethics and Rights

• Shared Writing: Moral

Behavior and Moral

Development

Case Study 5.1: The Ok Tedi Copper

Mine

Case Study 5.2: Gas or Grouse?

• Journal: Ethics of Protecting a

Species

Summary: Ethics and the

Environment

• Chapter Quiz

See REVEL assignment calendar for

specific assignment details, including

due date and time.

Before class, complete any REVEL

reading, quiz, or writing assignments

Introduction: The Ethics of Consumer

Production and Marketing

6.1: Everyday Consumer Risks

6.2: Markets and Consumer

6.3: The Contractual View of the

Manufacturer’s Duties to Consumer

• Journal: The Contractual

View and Trump University

6.4: The Due-Care View of the

Manufacturer’s Duties to Consumers

• Journal: Apply Due Care to

the Tobacco Industry

Chapter 6: The Ethics of Consumer

Production and Marketing

• Journal: Evaluate the Ethics

of Do-It-Yourself Genetic

Testing

6.6: Advertising Ethics

• Journal: The Ethical Duties of

Manufacturing and R.J.

Reynolds

6.7: Consumer Privacy

• Journal Prompt: Daily Life in

a Roman Provincial Town:

Graffiti from Pompeii

• Shared Writing: The Ethics of

Consumer Production and

Marketing

Case Study 6.1: Promoting Infant

Formula in the Twenty-First Century

• Journal: Evaluate the Ethics

of Infant Formula Marketing

Case Study 6.2: Reducing Debt at

Credit Solutions of America

• Journal: The Ethics of CSA’s

Production and Marketing

• Chapter Quiz

specific assignment details, including

due date and time.

Before class, complete any REVEL

reading, quiz, or writing assignments

for Chapter 7:

Introduction: The Ethics of Job

Discrimination

7.1: Divided over Discrimination

7.2: The Nature of Job Discrimination

• Journal: Racism and Work

7.4: Discrimination: Utility, Rights,

and Justice

Chapter 7: The Ethics of Job

Discrimination

• Journal: Discrimination in

Practice

• Journal: Discrimination

Against Transgender People

7.5: Affirmative Action

Case Study 7.1: Should Kroger Pay

Now for What a Ralphs’ Employee

Did in the Past?

• Journal: Complexities of the

Case

• Shared Writing: Background

and Research on

Discrimination

• Shared Writing: For and

against Affirmative Action

Case Study 7.2: Wal-Mart ’s Women

• Journal: What’s in Store for

Wal-Mart?

Summary: The Ethics of Job

Discrimination

• Chapter Quiz

See REVEL assignment calendar for

specific assignment details, including

due date and time.

Introduction: Ethics and the Employee

8.1: The Rational Organization

• Journal: Evaluate

Consequences from an

Ethical Perspective

• Journal: Actions and Words

• Journal: Is This Job Better

Than None?

8.2: The Political Organization

• Journal: Evaluate the

Sergeant’s Predicament

8.3: Informal Power Relationships in

Organizations

8.4: The Caring Organization

• Shared Writing: Relate

Employee Rights to Basic

Rights and Justice

• Shared Writing:

Organizational Models and

the Similarity Argument

Case Study 8.1: Death at Massey

Energy Company

• Journal: Apply an Ethical

Framework to Massey Energy

Case Study 8.2: Who Should Pay?

• Journal: Determine

Responsibility

Summary: Ethics and the Employee

• Chapter Quiz

See REVEL assignment calendar for

specific assignment details, including

due date and time.